Closing the Loop: Bringing more “web” to authoring

Web based working (including mobile) is increasingly gaining ground, with web apps and cloud services such as Office 365 and Google Drive leading the way.

Also authoring is going online, with web based XML editors entering the market. While the initial step towards web based working is often triggered by a need for cost-efficiency, a full transformation to web based authoring is likely to revolutionize authoring more fundamentally.

Increase content quality from the source

Typical online practices such as User Analytics, A/B testing, Responsive Design, Gamification, Mobile, Personalization and Community Management may be more relevant for authoring than seen at first sight. User friendliness has the potential to involve many new stakeholders to authoring and eventually blur the border between authors and readers. Direct feedback on content-use and tools that pro-actively assist authoring while writing will help to increase content quality from the source.

Authoring from a web perspective

The presentation by Jan Benedictus and Wim Hooghwinkel at CMS/DITA North America (april 28-30 in Seattle) will look at authoring from a web perspective and discuss ‘new combinations’ with the potential to innovate authoring in the years ahead. Altogether they expect that the relationship between producers and consumers of specialized content will develop to a circular one: closing the loop.